Shizuka Araide
Shizuka was born to be on the ice, despite her decision to become a teacher instead. Due to her many years of taking skating lessons she is extremely graceful even off the ice, her movements often reflecting those of a figure skater's rather than those of a normal person. Sometimes her actions appear out of place in everyday life, though she chooses to ignore any comments that might be made to that effect. She also has a natural affinity for the sciences; in particular chemistry. Her friends have often joked that she should become a witch since she is so good at making “potions”. If she believed that magic existed she would no doubt actually consider doing just that. But as it is she mostly just uses her talents for her teaching as well as for her experiments. Although it’s her first year of teaching, Shizuka is far from what most people would expect from a teacher. She can be brash, impatient, and she goofs off a lot. While in school the only reason she was able to make good grades was because she was smart enough to pass the classes without actually having to ever show up for them. She would much rather be outside in the sun, either just relaxing or having fun, than be in a classroom. In fact the only time she likes to be indoors is when it rains, since she hates bad weather. Her impatience is often misdirected towards her peers (or her students). She sees nothing wrong with berating her students if they are not performing on the level she expects of them. She also has no problem with shouting and giving detention. Unfortunately for her, these mannerisms make it incredibly difficult to keep a job. Also as she has a habit of experiment with dangerous chemicals there are often explosions in her lab, or wherever she is working at the time. Luckily none of them are very big explosions, though they are explosions nonetheless. Appearance Shizuka is neither tall nor short; she is simply average. Due to years of figure skating she is quite thin and her body is well-muscled for a girl’s. However her muscles are hardly visible just by looking at her. She keeps her hair long and only wears it back if she is in class or working on an experiment so as to keep it away from the chemicals or flames she is working with. She possesses bright green eyes that are known to glint dangerously when she is angry about something and about to start shouting. Although her voice is normally pleasant enough to listen to, when she starts screaming it takes on a harsh quality that has been compared to birds screeching. On cold days she will walk with a limp which is virtually unnoticeable the rest of the time, showing that her right foot has been injured in the past. History Shizuka was born in Osaka, Japan twenty-three years ago to a former figure skater and her trainer. As such she began taking lessons in the sport from an early age, learning all that both of them had to teach her. Although she did love to skate she couldn’t help but feel that in a way her parents only wanted her to learn so that she could fulfill their dreams, and not for her own sake. This wasn’t such a big deal to her though since she did like competing. In fact it was really all she was. She was a figure skater who dreamt of nothing more than skating, competing, and winning. Her dream was to one day go onto the Olympics and win the medal her mother had failed to obtain many years before. She would have continued to compete in single’s competition had it not been for a terrible accident that occurred during her third year in high school. During a sectional competition she ended up having the blade on one of her boots detach during her performance. Unable to recover her balance she fell, shattering her right foot and breaking the same ankle. While recovering she couldn’t help but wonder if it had really been an accident or if it had been sabotage. It was a well-known fact that figure skaters could be ruthless, and her skates had been brand new. In the end it didn’t matter either way because her career was over. Although she was able to recover the ability to walk and run almost completely normally she was told that she could never skate the same again. In fact although she still loves skating with a passion that she will never fully lose she hasn’t even been on the ice for more than a few minutes in years; too afraid of a repeat of that unfortunate event. Shizuka knows she should be grateful to still be able to walk and even get on the ice at all, but she misses being able to do it all. After the accident and her subsequent recovery Shizuka had to make a decision regarding her future. She couldn’t stay at home with her parents anymore. No, she couldn’t bear the looks they gave her. Although she knew they tried to hide it, she could clearly see their disappointment at her failure in their eyes. They had longed for their only child to be a professional skater and now she never would. No, what she had to do was leave. So, as soon as she graduated high school she packed her bags and moved on. She had always gotten good enough grades in school so getting into a decent college was really no problem for her. She decided upon majoring in education with a focus on science since that was her best subject. It seemed like a safe enough option at the time, since she enjoyed chemistry and she thought that it might be fun to “enrich the lives of children”, or something to that effect. In the end it wasn’t her first choice, but she would live with it all the same. Somehow she made it through four years of university while barely managing to support herself financially thanks to occasional skating lessons she gave at a local rink. If it wasn’t for money her parents sent her monthly she never would have been able to afford living on her own. But once she was through she couldn’t help but feel accomplished. Sure she hadn’t really gone to class all that much since there always seemed to be something more interesting than sitting in a classroom all day long. And sure, she probably could have gotten better grades and a better education had she actually gone, but at least her grades had been decent. Good enough to get her teaching certification at the very least. Now, getting a job would be a bit harder. She realized that she wasn’t fully prepared to have a job as a teacher since it would mean that she had to stop goofing off and actually focus on her work. It would be a new level of responsibility that she had never had to deal with before. But she felt that she could do it if she set her mind to it. After moving to Tokyo she moved into the Hinata Apartments and started looking for work. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be a need for chemistry teachers right away so she once again had to go back to teaching skating to children at the city’s indoor skating rink. It took almost an entire year for a position to finally open at the Tsukuba Academy for her to take. Immediately she jumped on the opportunity, excited for the opportunity to finally teach for real and not just kids wanting to skate. Shizuka was still a little bit hesitant since she would be teaching kids older than she was used to, and she had only ever taught at a skating rink or at the small school she had interned at while she was in school. This would be a challenge for sure; hopefully one that she could overcome. Well, even if she couldn’t at least she would always have something to fall back on. And besides, she was determined to make it work even if it would be hard so what did she have to lose? Plot Coming Soon! Relationships Coming Soon! Trivia *Shizuka enjoys shopping. *Shizuka likes daydreaming outside on sunny days. *She owns a cat which she enjoys playing with. *It is known that she enjoys figure skating as she is a figure skating instructor. *She also likes to experiment with volatile compounds. Also See *Tsukuba Academy *List of Tsukuba Academy Faculty *Hinata Girls Dormitory *List of Hinata Girls Tenants